| Wow. To get the advertised lowest monthly fee for a model Y (Still $690/month!) you have to pay a $500 security deposit and a whopping $7900 “start fee” While the deposit is refundable, the start fee doesn’t appear to be. So in 1yr, your total outlay is $16,680 for a $48,600 car. That’s essentially a 3 year payoff + 500 for deposits, and you don’t end up with a car after. It’s not immediately clear what the advantage is here, I guess unless you can’t qualify for a regular car loan. But the equity cost here is very high. They claim a loan on this car at 4.25% would cost 1900/mo, but it’s more like 1300. And Tesla financing is as low as 2.9%, which is 1277/mo if you put 4500 down. Those go to 1203/mo and 1178/mo respectively if you put down 7900. I dunno. Nothing about this seems like a particularly good deal or good for it’s users. They don’t get the tax credits, they don’t get the equity, they just get a more economical rental. It doesn’t even look like there’s a purchase option in the end like a regular lease. Maybe I’m being cynical here, and I will admit I have never quite understood the appeal of leasing anyway, but this concept just totally escapes me, and the numbers don’t make a good deal of sense to me either. |
At the end of 7 years, you can expect the car to be worth more than $20k (obviously depends on usage).
That's $17k in present value.
That reduces you're real payment to ~$410/m.
This is way worse for cash-flow. Way worse short-term, and obviously worse long-term, too.
I'm not sure how companies like this can find customers.